A view from along the rail trail near downtown Morgantown, photo by Aaron Geiger

Morgantown, West Virginia is one of the most unique places in the United States: it is close to Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; it is surrounded by wilderness and Appalachia; it is home to West Virginia University; it is the mother to a grand cultural mix of health care, coal mining, environmentalism, academia, pharmacology, athletics, and outdoor recreation. We’d venture to say the diversity of lifestyles is probably the most dynamic you’re going to find in the area.

That’s why we’ve decided to start a blog to clue some of Morgantown’s masses, potential students, and curious bystanders in on some of the more intimate and hidden areas of the town and its surrounding townships and hollers. We will focus on a different lifestyle each weekday, to be repeated each week. We’ll also do some smaller lifestyle vignettes on Fridays (that will not be repeated). We encourage you, the reader, to participate in adding your lifestyle and interests to our pages. We are inclusive. We are Mountaineers.

Mondays – Kirk Auvilwill take you into the lives of gamers and hobbyists at the start of each week. Morgantown is home to a large crowd of enthusiasts, and they are passionate about what they do.

Tuesdays – Aaron Geiger ventures into the literary world of WVU, downtown Morgantown, and surrounding areas to investigate the weird lives of bibliophiles, verbal miscreants, and lingual voices. On its own, WVU hosts some incredible writers, poets, authors, and speakers. You can expect a Bryson-esque barrage of dry humor and interesting facts every Tuesday.

Wednesdays – Toni Cekada looks at the bread-and-butter of Morgantown and WVU: the spirit of volunteerism. From sending books to prisoners, to chronicling the Faces in the Mine to providing innovative outreach to the homeless, the town is a wonderful place to get your giving-back on. Expect Toni to unearth ways to volunteer you never knew existed, but always felt you should have been told.

Thursdays – Keri Gero investigates a little-known, but popular fact of Morgantown: pets and their owners. From jogging the rail trail with your dog, to finding apartments with dog parks and cat-friendly housing, to exploring the local shelters and dog-massaging parlors, Keri will bring the cultural gem of animal-friendly Morgantown to you.

Fridays – One of us will offer up a new vignette each week, maybe more, that will look into other lifestyles of Morgantown: the gay community, the Latino foundation, rifle team members, extreme sport enthusiasts—you name it. We’ll also take guest contributors here, too!

Our Bloggers

Hail, travelers, I bring good tidings. PSN has been resurrected with rewards aplenty for its jilted customers. Again I refer you folks to this timeline for the full scoop on the PSN Armageddon. A brief commentary on the offered games. Here’s the list from the horse’s mouth. PS3 users can select TWO of the following […]

Greetings folks, and welcome to what may very well be the final post of Mountaineer Life. We are going to look at Vintage Videos & Games, a Morgantown game store located right on High Street. Its storefront includes a lovely display case full of gaming artifacts. The display is certainly intriguing, a definite plus to […]

-Picture from Amizade website Can you imagine tutoring children in Mexico or Navajo Nation? Would you like to take care of orphans in Bolivia? How would you feel about assisting on a clean water project in the Amazon? Amizade, pronounced ah-mee-zha-jee, will more than likely have the perfect program for you if you are […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been in the trenches of Morgantown’s gaming scene. We’ve looked at tabletop gaming, a Smash Bros. tournament, and the businesses which sustain these things. West Virginia University, however, has not been featured. Well that’s about to change, as I recently attended a meeting of gamers in WVU’s Colson Hall. […]

The answer is your pet. Neuticles have been around for nearly 16 years. And since the first surgery was performed on a 9-month-old Rottweiler named Max in 1995, more than a quarter of a million cats, dogs, and horses (yes horses) have been “Neuticled” in the U.S. and 49 other countries. What exactly are Neuticles […]

-WAR’s facebook page So far, I have discussed attending events, local organizations, and short-term/long-term means of a way to do volunteer work. This week’s post is about joining a club on campus. This should hopefully be a more convenient way for busy students to offer their time to the community because, well, we […]

I’ve been looking forward to this story more then any other. It’s ironic, of course, that I am running late on posting it to Mountaineer Life. Please forgive me. Yesterday, at U92, we had our annual reunion sports talk show, bringing back hosts from the last several years and having them on for what turned […]

For my post this week I’ve decided to touch on a little known issue: Grey Hound Rescue. I did a radio story on this issue about a year and a half ago (one of my first broadcast stories) and thought that it would be a good and different way to blog this week…I just added […]

This past Sunday, I helped women and children in Africa get clean water. My dear mother and I participated in the 4th annual Amizade water walk. Our mission was to raise money and awareness for the women who have to walk up to 3-4 hours just for a bucket of clean water, and the children […]